Approximately 30% to 60% of children experience a behavioral health problem such as picky eating, toileting, or sleep difficulties; however, less than half of those individuals receive the necessary services to improve their symptoms and functioning. Examining the pathway through which children access behavioral health care is crucial to understanding the gap between the need for services and actual service use. Help-seeking process models suggest that for a child to receive care, caregivers must go through a series of linear stages: problem recognition, decision to seek help, and service selection. This help-seeking process has not been previously examined for sleep, picky eating, and toileting challenges, which leaves a gap in our knowledge about how children receive access to important behavioral health care. The current study aimed to fill gaps in the literature regarding help-seeking for behavioral health concerns. Survey data was collected through Amazon’s Mechanical Turk. Participants were 151 caregivers of children ages 5 to 10 years who provided information about help-seeking and child behavioral health symptoms. Rates of caregiver problem recognition for children who exhibited clinically significant concerns were 39% for sleep, 70% for picky eating, and 52% for toileting. When caregivers identified a problem, rates of help-seeking ranged from 53% (sleep) to 69% (toileting). The severity of the child’s problem predicted caregiver problem identification and help-seeking across all concerns. Caregiver past experience with mental health predicted problem identification and help-seeking for sleep and for picky eating. Family disorganization also predicted identification of picky eating problems. Caregivers demonstrated low knowledge of treatment options for behavioral health, and specialty behavioral health services were underutilized across problem areas with 69% to 75% of caregivers in the sample indicating that they had or would seek help from a pediatrician and only 11% to 19% indicating that they had or would seek help from a therapist or psychologist. Caregivers also reported low rates of pediatrician screening for these behavioral health concerns, and results suggest that caregivers are not fully satisfied with how pediatricians address their concerns. Overall, results support and add to the findings in the literature that suggest child behavioral health problems are under- recognized and under-treated. Future research is needed to close the gap between the need for services and service use.

Yes / Purpose Perinatal depression is one of the most commonly diagnosed mental health conditions in the general maternity population but whilst the prevalence is thought to be much higher in asylum seeking and refugee (AS&R) women, it is less frequently identified and diagnosed by health care professionals. Method A systematic review was undertaken to address ‘what factors influence help-seeking behaviours in asylum seeking and refugee women with symptoms of perinatal depression’. The review focussed on women accessing care in high income countries. 12 studies met the eligibility criteria and a narrative synthesis was undertaken resulting in two main themes: women's perceptions of depression and access to healthcare and support services. Results Findings indicated that many of the influences on help-seeking were also present in the general population and women from ethnic minority populations, with the exception of migration experiences; but that women from a AS&R may experience more of these barriers, exacerbating inequality in access to and engagement with healthcare. Conclusion Further research is needed to provide more detailed insight into the experiences of asylum seeking and refugee women to identify ways that barriers in help-seeking can be addressed.

This study was designed to investigate 1) the cultural factors involved with Mexican citizens' attitudes toward seeking professional psychological help and 2) Mexican citizens' explanatory models of mental distress. Questionnaire data from 110 Mexican college students indicate that those who report a higher tolerance for stigma report lower endorsement of both the construct of personalismo and the machismo. Respondents who reported more interpersonal openness also reported a lower endorsement of the machismo construct. Participants from a large city reported significantly more stigma tolerance than those from a small city. Regression analyses reveal machismo as a significant predictor of stigma tolerance. Qualitative data was collected to provide additional in-depth information. Study results could be used to provide culturally appropriate mental health services.

To provide empirical basis for mental health interventions in the deprived sub-Saharan African region, this study explored the perspectives of the Igbo people of south-eastern Nigeria on four dimensions of mental illness: causal beliefs, attitudes towards sufferers, preferred treatment pathways and perceived barriers to accessing formal psychiatric care. Mixed sampling methods were used to select participants who completed quantitative questionnaires. The number of participants varied between 200 and 706 in the exploratory studies but remained constant (n = 1127) in the confirmatory studies. The study found mixed endorsements of the supernatural, biological and psychosocial causal explanations with supernatural causations being significantly more endorsed. The study also found mixed treatment preferences with formal psychiatric care being significantly more preferred to the spiritual pathway which was in turn significantly more preferred to the traditional pathway. Significant negative attitudes and desire for social distance from persons with mental illness were observed across groups. Barriers to accessing mental healthcare were also significantly perceived with ideological barriers being significantly more perceived than instrumental barriers. Systematic associations were found between causal beliefs and treatment preferences: supernatural causal belief predicted preference for the spiritual and traditional treatment pathways while psychosocial causal belief predicted preference for both formal psychiatric care and the traditional treatment pathway. Mixed causal attributions and treatment preferences reflect holistic view of health and healing and calls for the evolution of complementary model of care that would incorporate people's spiritual and cultural needs. The prospect is supported in psychosocial causal beliefs being associated with preference for the traditional treatment pathway. Significant negative attitude is a contradiction in the traditionally communitarian and predominantly Christian culture, and is deserving of intervention in the context where the solidarity of the social network should compensate for the inadequate mental healthcare. Significantly more ideological than instrumental barriers have crucial policy implication; improved conceptualizations of mental illness should precede improvement of facilities and services or else these could be underused. Demographic correlates of causal beliefs, negative attitudes, pathway preferences and barriers to accessing formal mental healthcare care were determined for targeted interventions.

Thesis (Ph. D.)--Michigan State University. School of Social Work, 2008. / Title from PDF t.p. (viewed on July 23, 2009) Includes bibliographical references (p. 274-285). Also issued in print.

Thesis (M.S.W.)--University of Hong Kong, 1992.

Thesis (M.S.W.)--University of Hong Kong, 1991.

Thesis (M.S.W.)--University of Hong Kong, 1993. / Includes bibliographical references (leaves 91-95).

No description available.

The major purpose of this study was to test a hypothesized structural model that included many of the variables that have been found to influence people's attitudes toward seeking psychological help and investigate if these variables and their inter-relationships are different for young versus older adults. This study offers a more comprehensive investigation than previous research by testing and modifying two structural models of help-seeking attitudes, one for young adults and one for older adults. This makes it possible to examine how these variables differ for the two age groups.